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Thursday, November 3, 2016

My husband and I made a couple visits to Corpus Christi, Texas, this past summer, which was our stomping grounds from 1974 to 1985 (for him) and 1979 to 1984 (for me). My husband also spent some time in his childhood in the 1940s in Corpus Christi (his parents, like us, married there), and both of us have ancestral and collateral relatives who lived here in the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century.

During the time I lived there, I didn't think to take pictures of some of the places I saw frequently. I guess I thought those buildings would always be the same. Naturally, that was not the case.

Luckily, someone else did take pictures - Kenneth L. Anthony, who worked for a local television station for 32 years, from 1966 to 2002. He donated many of his photographs to Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, where I obtained an MBA in 1983 (back when it was called Corpus Christi State University). He donated 1,250 of his images to the university library's special collections in 2010. Both the library and Mr. Anthony gave me permission to use some of his images in my blog, for which I am very grateful.

Today's post is about the Bayfront Plaza area (also known back then as the Bayfront Science Park), which was at the north end of Shoreline Drive, just south of the channel entrance to the Port of Corpus Christi. During the time I lived in Corpus Christi, this area contained the Bayfront Plaza Auditorium and Convention Center, the Art Museum of South Texas (built in 1972), the Harbor Playhouse (for live theater, built in 1976), and the Corpus Christi Museum. I'd go to the Art Museum every holiday season for the Christmas Tree Forest, and when I worked for the city's Information Services office, I frequented the Museum to use the darkroom there.

The two pictures that follow are a then (1982) and now (2016) comparison of the Bayfront Plaza Auditorium (which is called the Corpus Christi Community Auditorium in the 1979 map pictured below). In 1996, it was renamed the Selena Auditorium in honor of Tejano singer and city resident Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, who was murdered the previous year. The building was renovated in 2004 to connected it to the Convention Center, but from the exterior, it looks very similar.

Above: Bayfront Plaza Convention Center [actually, this is the Auditorium], 1982. Kenneth L. Anthony Photographic Collection, Item 212-84. Special Collections and Archives, Mary and Jeff Bell Library, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Used with permission of Kenneth L. Anthony.Below: The same area in June 2016 - not too many changes to the exterior of the auditorium itself.

The two pictures that follow are a then (1982) and now (2016) comparison of the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center. According to the 1979 map pictured below, the Convention Center was still under construction in 1979, but it was completed and dedicated in March 1981.

Below: The convention center in July 2016, from the Texas State Aquarium across the port entrance.

The image below is from the map I bought when I moved to Corpus Christi in 1979. The Bayfront Science Park, where all these buildings mentioned are located, is the large green area at the top of the map (click on the image to enlarge it).

Above: Image from the map I bought when I moved to Corpus Christi in 1979. The Bayfront Science Park is the green area at the top. Click on this image to enlarge it.

Below: My photograph of the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center and Auditorium taken from my husband's sailboat, about 1981. The Art Museum of South Texas is at the far right, and the Harbor Bridge in in the background.

Below: Detail from above photo of the Bayfront Plaza area, showing ca. 1984 the Art Museum of South Texas in the upper right corner, the Bayfront Plaza Auditorium to its left, the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center just in front of and to the left of the auditorium, the Harbor Playhouse just behind and to the left of the Convention Center, and the Corpus Christi Museum just behind and to the right of the Harbor Playhouse. This area is just under the entrance to the Port of Corpus Christi, below the Harbor Bridge, in the photo above. Kenneth L. Anthony Photographic Collection, Item 212-118 (detail). Special Collections and Archives, Mary and Jeff Bell Library, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Used with permission of Kenneth L. Anthony.